2D and 3D Angles-Only Target Tracking Based on Maximum Correntropy Kalman Filters

In this paper, angles-only target tracking (AoT) problem is investigated in the non Gaussian environment. Since the conventional minimum mean square error criterion based estimators tend to give poor accuracy in the presence of large outliers or impulsive noises in measurement, a maximum correntropy criterion (MCC) based framework is presented. Accordingly, three new estimation algorithms are developed for AoT problems based on the conventional sigma point filters, termed as MC-UKF-CK, MC-NSKF-GK and MC-NSKF-CK. Here MC-NSKF-GK represents the maximum correntropy new sigma point Kalman filter realized using Gaussian kernel and MC-NSKF-CK represents realization using Cauchy kernel. Similarly, based on the unscented Kalman filter, MC-UKF-CK has been developed. The performance of all these estimators is evaluated in terms of root-mean-square error (RMSE) in position and % track loss. The simulations were carried out for 2D as well as 3D AoT scenarios and it was inferred that, the developed algorithms performed with improved estimation accuracy than the conventional ones, in the presence of non Gaussian measurement noise.